January 9, 2024 at 04:48PM
A Chinese research institute claims to have decrypted Apple’s AirDrop, allowing the government to identify users sharing content. China’s history of censorship prompted people to use AirDrop during protests, leading to Apple limiting its use. Beijing Wangshendongjian Institute reportedly cracked AirDrop, identifying users sending content and leading to the arrest of suspects for spreading inappropriate information.
From the meeting notes, it is evident that a Chinese state-backed research institute claims to have discovered a method to decrypt device logs for Apple’s AirDrop, thereby allowing the government to identify phone numbers or email addresses of those who have utilized this feature.
The context provided highlights China’s history of censoring its people and the utilization of AirDrop by protesters during the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Moreover, Apple’s release of iOS 16.1.1, which limited the ability to receive AirDropped images, aimed to restrict its potential use by Chinese protestors and has since been applied globally.
The recent report from Bloomberg further details the discovery made by China’s Beijing Wangshendongjian Judicial Appraisal Institute, indicating that they have been able to extract sender information from the device logs, particularly the sender’s device name, email address, and mobile phone number, using rainbow tables to dehash the hashed data.
The Chinese government has mentioned that this ability has been utilized to identify multiple suspects involved in cases involving the misuse of AirDrop for spreading inappropriate content in public places.
These meeting notes shed light on a significant development that could have implications for privacy and tracking of individuals using AirDrop in China.